Hot answers tagged sun
38
It tells us that the aperture contains either three or six blades and that where these blades meet there is a corner which results in Fraunhofer diffraction. This is discussed mathematically in Physics SE.
It also tells us that the lens was stopped down, as if it were wide open there would be no corners to cause diffraction, regardless of the number of ...
19
I would say it really depends on if you have a SLR, DSLR or P&S (Point-and-Shoot) - and maybe even possibly it more (or less) depends if the sensor is CCD or CMOS.
My own experiences says it doesn't occur with P&S cameras - ever. I have 4 cheap P&S (Canon PowerShot) cameras which I have used exclusively over the years for shooting time-lapse ...
18
Taking direct photos of the sun can destroy your camera, not to mention your eyes. It's exactly as you are afraid, the lens will act as a magnifier and multiply the suns intensity right on your cameras internals. What this effects can vary. Long exposures against the sun can cause permanent damage to your camera's sensor, but besides that, your camera's ...
16
It can be done in post-processing, of course, but that's the result of shooting a bright light source using a very small aperture (high f-number) and having a 9-bladed iris in the lens.
Different iris shapes will show different "star" patterns. This one has 18 points, which means it came from either a 9-bladed or 18-bladed iris, and since nobody makes ...
16
It's hard to tell for sure at that resolution, but it looks like overly aggressive sharpening (unsharp masking) to me -- you are probably taking JPEGs straight from the camera, right?
Unsharp masking works by "forcing" the contrast at the edges -- it makes the darks slightly darker and the lights slightly lighter where they meet in order to increase the ...
15
I think this is an example of: use the opportunities you have, rather than the ones you wish you had. The situation you describe is tricky, and it'll be difficult to get the kind of grand, well-lit landscape that you seen in magazines. But, as Kyle suggests, perhaps there are different interpretations of the scene that could work. Some specific suggestions ...
15
It's because that image is only capturing the visible spectrum. Most of the images you see of the sun are capturing the ultraviolet spectrum, where you see some really impressive explosions and coronal ejections:
That image was taken from space with a highly specialised scientific camera, but you can capture some details, including prominences using a ...
9
If I understand what your asking, how to get the sun to produce a multi-pointed sunburst or star flare like that (Fraunhofer diffraction), its relatively simple: stop down your aperture to the point where it is no longer circular, but a polygonal. Using a fairly small aperture will produce a star flare around most light sources that are not too small.
The ...
8
You can get all sorts of interesting shapes and colours when shooting directly into a lightsource like that. All pieces of glass reflect a certain amount of light and transmit a certain amount, so you actually get flare from everything in your scene every time you shoot, only it's usually much dimmer than the rest of the picture so you don't see it.
When ...
8
If you don't have a solar filter, the standard way to protect yourself when viewing a solar eclipse is to project the image via a lens or even a pinhole onto a suitable background. Why not set up a rig in which you use, say, an old camera lens projecting the image onto matte paper in the back of a darkened box and photograph that image? Fred Espenak ...
8
That looks like a typical dust spot.
How blurry the spot is depends on the distance between the filter in front of the sensor and the actual sensor (which is constant for each camera model), and the aperture used. For a smaller aperture (higher f-number) the spot gets sharper.
The sensor cleaning function may remove some dust, but I read a test a while ...
7
Yes, the sun can damage your sensor, as detailed in the previous answer. If it is that strong, compared to your sensor's sensitivity, you won't get a useful exposure in any case.
If you do want to photograph the sun, you can use an ND400 filter. This is the one I use: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/155266-REG/Hoya_A77ND400_77_mm_Neutral_Density.html
...
7
The lens is using an aperture with six blades (or, theoretically, three - see comments); most probably six, since there are very few, if any, lenses with three aperture blades.
The lens is stopped down, and the aperture blades aren't rounded (or not enough for this aperture setting).
OR someone is using a star filter (though probably not, they are not very ...
6
The pixels are not overexposed in any channel, and applying a heavy curve will reveal the darker edges and some dark spots. What you have is an exposed-to-the-right image of how the sun looks like - it is a big shiny ball. IMHO you should have enough data in RAW to tweak this into a usable image.
5
Polarizers and neutral density filters will go a long way to help this, but they are not a panacea. At some point you will hit their limits and will need to consider an alternate time of day to really get the shot. That is, after all, the "secret" of photography: the right time at the right place.
4
One really cool thing to do in a solar eclipse is look at the shadows cast from small dots, like the small gaps in leaves. Normally, they will be circle shaped, in an eclipse, they will look crescent shaped. Look for similar phenomena around you, and good luck!
Oh, definitely get a solar filter of some kind, if you can, or it could damage your eyes and ...
4
You can try this:
step down at max (eg. > f/22)
take an off-focus blurry picture of some uniform surface (eg. ceiling or monochrome wall). Best is when you can get rid of the subject grain itself, so look for slow exposures and manual out-of-focus!
If the sensor is dusty you'll clearly notice spots. If you have scratches, you'll see them also.
For your ...
4
Hrm...it's weird that your sensor would be damaged with a mid-afternoon shots of the sun.
Were you directly pointing to the sun?
Were these long exposures of the sun?
Were you using LiveView (on an SLR)?
How big are the pink spots?
When did you take the shots, and how long have you let the body rest before trying again?
Perhaps try letting the body rest ...
4
There's probably some post-processing (HDR) to get everything exposed correctly, but you can get the sun's rays without any post-processing. It's hardly the best example, but you can see some of the effect here, where (except for cropping and resizing) I haven't done any post-processing at all:
You want a narrow aperture (though I only used f/4.5 for the ...
4
First and foremost, never, EVER look directly at the Sun through your viewfinder. EVER.
Generally speaking, it is not a good idea to point your camera directly at the sun, whether you're looking through the viewfinder or not. This becomes more critical as your lens gets longer - a telephoto lens is essentially a telescope, so you'd be focussing all the ...
4
WARNING:
All care and no responsibility !!!
This is YOUR eyes at stake - exercise due care.
If smoke curls gently from the camera, odds are you have got it wrong.
Be very aware that a camera optical system MAY focus the suns rays into a viewfinder - even if the main image is defocused.
Don't be scared away by the potential risks - just be certain ...
4
Those pictures seems to be taken trough microscope with H-alpha filter. Most of them are converted to black and white.
There is a whole website dedicated for solar photography:
http://www.hydrogenalpha.com/
Here is some info about H-alpha filter:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-alpha
To take similar pictures, you will need a telescope, F-mount to telescope ...
4
Alan Friedman, the astronomer featured, gave a TEDx talk late last year where he spoke about his inspiration for making these pictures. (Here's the link for the video: http://youtu.be/LTtTfCwkIW0)
In the video, he shows some of his gear.
He has two telescopes he's using. One is a refractor that probably has a built-in Hydrogen Alpha filter in place for ...
3
This looks like an excellent place to start.
A Checklist for Photographing the Transit of Venus
That was for the 2004 version, so times and date are of course wrong.
He covers procedures and equipment including cameras, optics, filters & more.
He notes that you can practice in advance by taking sunspot photos. Re sunspots - enjoy them while you ...
3
Remember that with a SLR the mirror is down until immediately before the shutter opens. The mirror would reflect most of the light to the eyepiece and not to the sensor or shutter.
Some of the light would be directed through the mirror to the focus mirror, which is usually behind the main mirror and gets its light through a section of the main mirror that ...
2
In this case you might try under exposing the image. I think you will still want to post process it but if your white areas end up clipped with digital you might have a little less room to create more contrast in post processing. This also might be a place where shooting in raw might give you a little more range you can work with in post processing as well.
...
2
As the other answer states this is probably related to in-camera sharpening. On a 550D this can be changed by choosing or customising the picture styles.
For a detailed explanation check the manual. The basic explanation is:
Choose the picture styles option (press the Down button, underneath "Set")
Select a softer style (e.g. Portrait)
If this is still ...
2
A large number of people, both amateurs and professionals, photograph and optically observe the sun regularly. The filters required are well known - a search on 'solar photography' will turn up many references.
Be aware that if you get it wrong you can destroy your eyes or your equipment in moments.
Looking directly at the sun will rapidly damage your ...
1
Yes you can certainly damage the camera internals. Light is radiation, it transfers energy. Lenses can concentrate light and thus energy. This energy gets absorbed and converted to heat which in turn can melt plastics and glue, warp metals etc.
You can safely take photos of the sun (astronomers do thus all the time) by limiting the light coming in, the ...
1
Unfortuneatly, it'll probably be before you can get to a store, but you need a very powerful neutral density filter, so that you can point your camera directly at the sun.
Around the time of the last total eclipse and also for the transit of venus in 2004 there were disposable "glasses" on several magazines that could be held in front of a lens for a cheap ...
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